CJ-9 Bo-Rifle

"Originating from the Lasat, the Bo-Rifle became renowned as a weapon owned solely by the one strong enough to defeat its wielder. The rifle has a reliable fire output although what defines it is its forward facing staff, capable of delivering lethal melee strikes."

— In-game description

CJ-9 Bo-Rifle

Weapon statistics

Unlocked at

Unlocked by killing a user wielding the CJ-9 Bo Rifle

Type

Blaster Rifle

Damage

30-19

Rate of fire

220 RPM

Range

Drop-off start: 10m

Drop-off end: 60m

Cooling Power

15 shots

Cooldown (failed)

2.72s

Muzzle velocity

500 m/s

Special feature(s)

Contents

The CJ-9 Bo-Rifle is notably long in size, likely as a safety precaution to avoid its electrified staff. Its barrel is rotund in shape, with a small emitter nozzle at its far side, which delivers its blaster bolts. Protruding from below its barrel is the blaster's signature electrified staff, which has several external wires, most likely as means of transmitting its lethal electrical signal. The CJ-9 Bo-Rifle is also fitted with optics, giving it place as a range weapon. Unlike most weapons in the game, it lacks a trigger guard.

The CJ-9 Bo-Rifle was a model of the traditional Bo-rifle, which was typically less rotund and much more crude in terms of design. The Bo-rifle originated from the Lasan High Honor Guard, a military group situated on the Lasat homeworld of Lasan, which, alongside the entire planet, was driven to near-extinction during its pacification, in which Imperial forces committed mass genocide on its people in order to prevent an uprising.[1] With the Lasat nearly disappearing from the galaxy entirely, many bo-rifle would fall into the hands of the Galactic Empire, and, naturally, the Rebel Alliance.

Advantages: thanks to its vastly-enhanced melee, the CJ-9 Bo Rifle can quickly dispatch any enemy at closer ranges meaning it gains the upper hand on most weaker blasters, such as most Heavy Blasters, or versus any unsuspecting infantry. When it comes to the actual blaster, the Bo-Rifle is particularly poor, only able to net quick kills when aiming for the head.

Disadvantages: the CJ-9 Bo Rifle is generally incredibly weak when it comes to raw power, so being forced into gunfights ─ particularly those in which slow albeit precise shots are not on the agenda ─ make it quickly futile.

Usage
The actual blaster of the CJ-9 Bo-Rifle is underwhelming, performing so ─ generally speaking ─ at any range, due to its pitiful damage output, below-average RPM, and average accuracy and Cooling Power. The only facet that separates it from fellow blaster rifles is its enhanced melee, although considering opportunities to melee are so scarce, usually any user will find that going out of the way to aim for melee kills is usually a recipe for a quick and easy death. However, there is a small ─ and difficult ─ silver lining to the Bo-Rifle; firing at the head can almost overlook the blaster's ubiquitous flaws, considering headshots all the way up to 55m will result in one shot kills, meaning having cover at a range where the user is safe to aim can make the blaster lethal, although this requires a great level of skill, is hugely situational, much alike its melee functionality, and, again, this is not anything particularly new or special, bearing in mind almost every other blaster in the game one-shot kills to the head at one range or another.

Now for its only recognisable trait ─ the Bo-Rifle's enhanced melee is, of course, a great bonus, but probably is not worth it with its many, many flaws, but still warrants the mention. The Bo-Rifle's electrified staff's lethal energy is a guaranteed one-shot kill to all infantry, regardless of damage modifiers, making it a decent check to the omnipresent Bacta Bomb + Bodyguard Trait combo, in addition to netting significant damage on Heroes. In addition, this melee ─ much alike the real thing ─ goes undetected on scanners, giving it place as a stealth weapon, and, to the only infantry in the game capable of surviving its lethal melee, Heroes, it does double damage to the back, netting around 50-25 damage depending on the Hero (from behind, of course).

Load out
The Escape Artist Trait is especially useful when running in and aiming for a melee kill, though note it is incredibly reckless when not paired with a Personal Shield, and use of the combat roll, which is just as fast as Level 2 of the Trait, can make it shaky at best.

Use of the Personal Shield can ensure a safe melee kill on enemies, though note meleeing through a basic Personal Shield is impossible, as pressing the melee button will result in absolutely nothing ─ not even a standard melee.